In order to compete at one of the 2017 FIRST^® Championships, a 2017 registered FIRST^® Robotics Competition team must either:

• Be a "Pre-Qualifying" Team;
• Become a Merit Based Qualifier during the 2017 Season;
• Have Veteran Team Status and register for the waitlist during the open enrollment phase, then be selected from the waitlist.

2017 Rookie Teams

2017 rookie teams are not eligible to register for the FIRST Championship Waitlists via open Registration, but must qualify to attend per the Merit Based criteria set forth in the chart.

Pre-Qualifying Teams

Pre-Qualified teams can register for the FIRST Championships beginning Thursday, November 3 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.

The following teams are considered Pre-Qualified:

• FIRST Championship Chairman’s Award winners from prior years (Hall of Fame teams)
• Original and Sustaining teams
• 2016 FIRST Championship FIRST STRONGHOLD winners
• 2016 FIRST Championship FIRST STRONGHOLD Engineering Inspiration Award winners

See chart for additional details.

Merit Based Qualifying Teams

Merit Based Qualifying Teams are automatically given the opportunity to register for the Championship at the time of their win at either a Regional Event or at their District Championship.

See the chart for full details on what constitutes Merit Based Qualification for 2017. Learn more about the Merit Based Awards (and all our awards) here.

Championship Waitlist for Veteran Teams

Both FIRST Championship locations in 2017, Houston and St Louis, will have Waitlists. Teams may join the Championship Waitlists to fill any remaining FIRST Championship slots not consumed by qualifying Regional or District teams. Teams may sign up for either or both Waitlists. Teams who sign up for the Waitlists will be randomly selected at various points throughout the competition season in an effort to give teams as much time to make travel plans as possible while ensuring we do not exceed FIRST Championship capacity.

Rookies are not eligible to sign up for the Waitlists.

Teams may sign up for the Waitlists through the team registration site. To do so, a team’s Lead Coach/Mentor 1 or 2 must log in to the team registration site, click on the “Event Registration” button, then select the FIRST Championship(s) that the team would like to join the Waitlist.

Teams will receive a number of “entries” to get selected from the Waitlists equal to 2017 minus the last year they attended Championship (or their rookie year, or when they most recently returned as an active team, whichever year is the most recent). As examples, a team that attended in 2016 will get one entry in the waitlists drawing, a team that last attended in 2015 will get two, and a team that has never attended but has been continuously active since 2007 will get ten.

Additional details on how the Waitlists will work, including details about team attendance at their ‘non-home’ FIRST Championship, can be found here.

Wild Card Slots for the 2017 Championship

Teams can earn a Wild Card slot at their Regional Event. Any team at a Regional who has already earned a FIRST Championship spot prior to the Regional and earns an additional spot at the Regional (by being on the Winning Alliance or being selected for one of the three qualifying awards) will generate a Wild Card slot. Additionally, any Team earning two qualifying spots at a single Regional (e.g. by being on the Winning Alliance and earning the Chairman’s Award) will generate a Wild Card slot.

A team who has already earned a spot at FIRST Championship prior to the Regional and earns two qualifying spots at the Regional will generate two Wild Card slots.

A Team is considered to have already earned a FIRST Championship spot prior to the Regional if they are a pre-qualified team, earned a spot at an earlier Regional by being selected for one of the three qualifying awards, are on the Winning Alliance, or earned a Wild Card slot. Non-qualified Teams who have been selected from the Waitlist to participate in the FIRST Championship do not generate Wild Cards.

The Wild Card slots are distributed to the Finalist Alliance, in the order of Team selection (Alliance Captain, 1st Pick, 2nd Pick, Back-Up team, if a Back-Up team participated), until either all Wild Card slots generated at that event are distributed or the Finalist Alliance is out of Teams, whichever comes first. If a member of the Finalist Alliance has already earned a spot at the FIRST Championship, they are passed over and the next member of the Alliance is given the available Wild Card slot. A team may decline a Wild Card slot they have been offered, but this does not pass the Wild Card slot down to the next team in line, instead, that Wild Card slot will go unused. Unused Wild Card slots will not be back filled or replaced.

All 2017 Regionals will automatically generate one Wild Card slot in addition to those that would normally have been generated. This Wild Card slot will be distributed in the same way that other Wild Spots are distributed.